The invention relates to a staple remover suitable for extracting or withdrawing staples or similar fasteners from articles or bundles held together thereby. More particularly, the present invention relates to a staple extracting device which will accomplish removal of the staple without causing damage to the materials held together thereby, and will uniformly withdraw the staple ends.
The staples are utilized to secure materials together, such as paper, in such a manner that they are not easily detachable from each other. Frequently, it is desired to remove the staple so that the materials may be disengaged and separated. One such device which has been utilized in the prior art to remove staples, comprises a pair of levers connected at one end thereof and spring biased such that the levers are held in an open position with their opposite ends away from one another. The levers of the staple remover have at their other ends, engaging jaws, each having two projecting points facing the opposite lever. The points of each jaw are tapered away from these points creating a surface on which the staples will ride upon during removal. The points of each jaw are designed to overlap each other when the levers are brought together by a force applied thereto. In this way, the jaws may be positioned on opposite sides of a staple secured to a bundle of papers, and be made to engage the staple with these points. As the levers are brought together, the jaws will engage the underside of the staple which will be forced to ride up the tapered surfaces. As the staple rides up the tapered surfaces of the jaws, the ends thereof will be unbent from their secured position to thereby be removed from the paper bundle.
With such an apparatus, problems have been encountered in that the removal of a staple creates enlarged openings in the paper or other material and many times tears and damages the paper undesirably. Another drawback of such an apparatus is that very often one end of the embedded staple remains secured to the paper bundle making removal thereof very difficult and frustrating. These problems are due to the application of unequal forces to the two embedded sides of the staple. The forces applied by the apparatus may be unequal at times because of disproportionate resistance to unbending of the clinching staple ends or sometimes because of initial misalignment of the jaw engagement with the staple. The ends of the staple are therefore not always unbent uniformly and completely, and thus, tearing of the openings from the extraction of staple ends which are only partially straightened or incomplete extraction of the staple with a partially straightened end occurs.
It has, therefore, been found that a more effective staple remover is desirable which avoids the problems mentioned, and yet is simple in design and particularly easy to manufacture.